Archive for category movement of resistance

Jane was a supporter of World Can’t Wait and dear friend of all of us who worked with her. She joined with us in the Bush-Cheney years to fight against the wars, the torture, to close Guantanamo and all the secret prisons around the world. What stood out about her is she truly hated all the crimes of this government. She was uncompromising in her opposition to those crimes and uncompromising in her support for World Can’t Wait, who she was thrilled to find because she knew there had to be a mass movement to oppose all that. The other thing she liked about World Can’t Wait—and I say this to say what it tells us about her—is that we were not afraid to struggle with people about their views ad thinking.

This came out when she helped organize and attend a World Can’t Wait event at Cooper Union when the Military Commissions Act was passed setting up those kangaroo courts at Guantanamo prison. The full page ad in the New York Times promoting demonstrations around this said, “Torture + Silence = Complicity.” She was very definitely NOT into complicity with war crimes and thought that people should be politically struggled with who were being silent.

Now here is something that tells us about her morality and steadfastness in it. When Obama was elected and began doing many of the same things Bush did—continuing the wars, not closing Guantanamo and using drones on a much larger scale that Bush—Jane stuck to her principles and she stuck with World Can’t Wait. We had a slogan that concentrated the stand that was needed: “Crimes are Crimes No Matter Who Does Them” and added in a full page ad in New York Review of Books in 2010 “Crimes under Bush are crimes under Obama and must be resisted by anyone who claims a shred of conscience.”

This was controversial, to say the least! But Jane thought it was right.

As she struggled with her illness, she continued to come to the office to discuss and contribute her thinking as to what we should do. It was very important to her that she continue to fight against all the injustice and crimes in the world. And to us, she continued to inspire us and it was a delight to have her to talk to all the way until she was not able any longer.

This period I’m talking about is only a short time in her life and we look forward to hearing from others about what she did in the earlier periods. There is much to learn from how she lived her life.